The Creed of the Challenger
by SeanTheYeaner
Summary: The Champion is more than just the pinnacle of strength. Becoming the Champion is more than just a journey. It is more than an adventure. The path to become a Champion is an epic of enlightenment and loneliness. No one can change the world as they are, those who dream of becoming Champion must first solve the conundrum of the Legendaries to finally rise above the sea of mediocrity.


Chapter 1: The Beginning of New Beginnings

I grew up on Cinnabar island 100 years after Champion Red shut down Team Rocket and began the golden age of pokemon training which to this day still shines brighter than it ever before. Since then the league had altered the 8 gym system to allow the progression of pokemon trainers from newbie to expert to be maximised. This was done by making gym leaders use pokemon with strength corresponding to how many badges the trainer had and only allowed trainers to fight the gyms in a specific order; The order being that in which Champion Red challenged the gyms when they only used the strongest pokemon available to them. The job of the gym circuit is to challenge trainers into raising incredible strong pokemon to defend the city's from invasion from wild pokemon and other regions whilst maintaining a healthy profit through ticket sales.

I lived with my adopted family for 8 years. The Scotts were a very hospitable family and they always took care of me but to this day I still wondered what growing up with my real parents would have been like. That question had never bothered me before mostly because I had not been particularly curious and also because Jane and Thomas Scott might as well have been my parents because of how lovingly they cared for me in the time since they adopted me.

All I knew about my parents were that, according to the workers at the orphanage, my parents had been Pokemon trainers and that I had been found in an abandoned building after Primus, the previous Gym Leader of Cinnabar Island's monstrous 11ft tall emboar had gone on a rampage after his owner had been reportedly murdered by an unknown attacker. It took the Cerulean City Gym Leader, Cadence Casity and his team of water types to bring down the monstrous boar within 5 minutes of pure battle. The battle was not without a lose, hundreds of innocent people died that day and eastern cinnabar was damaged heavily by the emboar's inferno and the flash flooding created in the attempt to subdue the beast.

It was devastating to the community of Cinnabar Island and the effects of the devastation are still present today throughout the people's psyche and the streets of Eastern Cinnabar. Cinnabar hosted the 2nd largest slum district in the region only to be outdone by the mess done in Saffron which had been peppered with gang war after gang war between two rival Team Rocket wannabe gangs, Team Anonymous and the Hecate Crime Family. The two were quickly shut down 18 years ago around the time I was born by a joint operation between the gym leaders of Fuchsia, Saffron, Cerulean and Celadon becoming the largest joint operation between the cities of Kanto since the original team rocket was taken down.

I dreamed of becoming Pokemon Champion so that I could protect the people who couldn't be protected just like my biological parents couldn't be protected. However the promise of fame and glory was still very appealing.

The Champion is the protector of the land and has no official power to make or contribute to the alteration or creation of laws however the Champions advice is always taken well into consideration. The Champion was at the forefront of pokémon related affairs and lead the pokémon league, pokémon rangers and ace trainers whose goal was to curb pokémon related crimes much like the military and police did with non-pokémon related crime. The Champion's pokémon were monsters.

I constantly watched the replay of the battle between the previous Champion, Warwick Vinsmoke and Champion Taric Bosner from almost 23 years ago. Two beast stood in the Champion's Valley, the sacred ground in which challengers became champions and champions became challengers and has been that way since ancient times. Diablo, a 17ft mega evolved charizard X was standing in defiance towards the seemingly unfazed Gyphen, a 22ft tall mega garchomp. Massive veins were popping throughout the Charizard's neck while his muscles appeared more defined than in his previous battles and his form was streamlined to a much higher degree than the average charizard. The battle was currently 5-4 in Taric's favour. Gyphen had just taken out Taric's infamously agile Lucario.

Without having to be told Warwick's garchomp rushed towards his opponent with a devastating dragon rush and in a blink of an eye he impacted hard against Diablo's uncompromising protection barrier. Before the land shark was given a chance to orientate himself after colliding with the barrier Diablo had lashed out with a mega punch making Gyphen's head snap backwards. Diablo punched two more times in quick succession before Gyphen bit down on the overgrown lizards shoulder with a sickening crunch followed by a dragon claw to Diablo's leathery side, drawing blood.

Gyphen gave his opponent no chance as he swung his bladed claw brutally towards his opponent face, drawing blood yet again before he leaped backwards and quickly summoned water from the exhausted lake and hit Diablo in the face with the highly pressurised water. The pokémon were acting on their trainers commands as if they had a mental link. Without any indication of being told to a thick sandstorm had quickly engulfed Gyphen, hiding him from view leaving only his intimidating shadow behind.

Diablo looked seemingly beat and exhausted before his entire body burst into flames somehow causing the sun to become noticeably brighter. Diablo had grown enraged. The lizards legs tensed as he prepared to rush Gyphen but before that could happen the sand around Diablo trapped him and the land shark had crunched down the lizard's foot from below the ground before being sent flying away with a powerful dragontail.

Diablo quickly caught himself and prepared to rush the land shark with a flare blitz while his opponent did the same with a dragon rush. The two took off with unimaginable speed and with a massive 'whumph' the two dragons collided and had quickly become engaged in close combat. Their movements became noticeably more difficult to follow until half a hyper beam had escape the flurry and hit the side of the mountain they were fighting next to causing a massive explosion rebound throughout Champion's Valley causing a landslide. One of the dragons had just been hit by a point blank hyper beam and was still somehow fighting on. Immediately after the hyper beam, draconic energy and fire were being released rapidly. This took place for another 2 minutes until Gyphen was sent flying away after another hyper beam.

The two beast looked on at each other in pure unadulterated rage and immediately rushed each other with draconic energy being released from their claws and blades. They both took devastating blows in favour of damaging their opponent, blood spurted out of their bodies gruesomely before it came to a tipping point. Gyphen's muscles tensed ready to finish Diablo off but before Gyphen could go in for the finishing combo a flaming tornado had engulfed them and beastial roars of pain could be heard coming from the inside. Both pokemon burst out at the top of the firestorm with Diablo on top and Gyphen underneath. Before the two beast could impact the ground Diablo flared his wings open and threw Gyphen into the ground hard enough to trigger a miniature earthquake that fell nearby trees.

The land shark roared in pain before he viciously leaped up and grabbed the lizard with his teeth and brought him down to the ground before stomping on his face when the ground were forming cracks underneath his head cracks as Gyphen used earthquake through his foot into the downed Charizards face. Diablo took a few more seconds of abuse until he escaped after hitting Gyphen with a feeble attempt of a dragon tail which only served to anger Gyphen further. Diablo could not orient himself fast enough and quickly was hit with a devastating stone edge to the skull. Diablo laid unmoving on the ground before he was returned to his pokeball by Taric. Both of the masters were now down to one pokemon each but Gyphen was evidently exhausted especially after he had just taken down both Warwick's lucario and charizard .

Taric started sweating profusely and nervously released Cypher whose blue scales shined brightly in the sun. Gyphen easily towered over the 7ft tall kingdra but the kingdra did not back down and instead eyed Gyphen with a sense of superiority. Cypher collected the moisture from the air and formed a wickedly sharp frozen spear and released it from her mouth, impaling Gyphen's shoulder. The land shark screeched in pain and quickly rushed the kingdra with fury in his eyes dealing a massive amount of damage before sending a flurry of dragon claws towards Cypher. During the flurry of attacks Cypher did something both terrifying and awesome, he hit the land shark with a hydro pump and brought forth the water from the atmosphere and froze it around Gyphen who had now been turned into an ice sculpture in the deadliest ice type move, sheer cold.

Taric and Cypher had started celebrating prematurely as not many pokemon could survive sheer cold especially a pokemon that was extremely weak to ice moves such as garchomp.

The ice surrounding the mighty dragon began turning red from the beast's blood, helping warm the ice only slightly and with enough strength and will-power he broke free from his frosty restraints. With a stomp of the land sharks foot jagged rock had protruded from the ground and sent the unprepared king into the air. The kingdra quickly caught his barings in the air and his focus and agility seemed to sharpen however while this occurred Gyphen sharpened the blades on his arms and rushed at Cypher only to be pummelled back onto the ground by a series of ice beams. The process repeated again but this time a meteor shrouded with draconic energy had burst from garchomp's mouth impacting Cypher who looked on in shock and pain before growing in anger and an uncompromisable barrier appeared between the two beast. Gyphen seemed to be a lot more exhausted and waited for the barrier to come down impatiently but he did not have to wait longer as a beam of pure ice replaced the barrier and he was forced to make one of his own to avoid being hit.

The battle was now at a stalemate and footage cut to 5 minutes ahead to when Gyphen could no longer hold the barrier and was struck by the massive ice beam. Gyphen was now on the verge of collapsing but before he could collapse he exploited Cypher's momentary weakness after holding an ice beam for so long and sent another draconic meteor at the kingdra who took the hit and began spasming profusely. The battle was now down to who could stay conscious the longest as both pokemon could not physically move but could only stay awake. After a tense minute Gyphen was the first to collapse forcing Warwick to reluctantly return his beast of a garchomp allowing Taric to win and become the new champion.

I shut off the television and grew in excitement. One day my own pokemon were going to be stronger than this, faster than this, tougher than this. Fear kept tugging at me that one day I would have to make my own pokemon battle these monsters.

If I could even get a Pokémon of my own.

* * *

A screech had resounded throughout my room pulling me out of my deep slumber. I reached for the alarm in my room and began pressing on it to stop. Frustration grew as the screeching did not stop until it hit me that this screeching wasn't coming from my alarm. It was the house alarm, someone had entered our house in the middle of the night. I was up instantly.

I quickly shot up from my bed and retrieved the baseball bat from under the bed and slowly crept towards my door. I turned the handle excruciatingly slowly and opened the door with as much carefulness as I did with the handle hoping it would not creak and to my relief the door did not creak.

I was startled as a prone figure lay just outside my door and the door opposite mine, my parents room. I identified it as being my adopted Dad. I felt my stomach get hit and my chest sunk. The person that took me on and gave me love when he had no obligation was dead in front of me.. Movement caught the corner of my eye and I quickly swung my baseball bat impacting on something with a shriek and a loud crack. It was a voltorb. Panic grew in me as I knew what would follow after.

I quickly ran into my parents room hoping to find my mother however she wasn't there. I ran down the stairs skipping the last 4 steps in my hurry only to look over to the living room and find a sight that would be forever burned in my nightmares. My mother was on the ground burning to a crisp as two men in black escaped through the window with a growlithe and ekans following. The ekans quickly spotted me before I ran out the house and it quickly slithered towards me in the attempt to make sure there were no witnesses. I got to the door only for pain to fill me. I had been bitten and I quickly hit it away with the baseball bat sending the ekans flying off my leg.

Adrenaline and rage kicked in as I ran over to the snake and started beating it over and over with the baseball bat. Bones cracked each time I swung until eventually my arms grew tired and tears were streaming down my face. My brain only just managed to process why the men had brought a voltorb. I ran outside as a resounding explosion occurred behind me as the voltorb self-destructed and my home exploded. I was sent propelling forwards landing on my back as my vision began blurring until darkness took over me.

* * *

I had finally been discharged from the hospital after a month of treatment for my severe burns. I remember waking up to a group of nurses and doctors screaming orders at each other and giving me reassurances that I'd be alright. Everything from there was a blur but I remember celebrating my 18th birthday there. No one else celebrated it other than me.

I had nowhere to go. I was now officially an adult so I couldn't go back to the orphanage nor did I have relatives nor did the Scotts so I couldn't go anywhere if I wanted. I was just stuck waiting until I could get my inheritance, if there was any left, so that I could attempt to fulfil my dreams of conquering the league.

It pained me to think both my biological and adopted parents had died and I had survived. Anger filled me. Whoever those people were I wanted to kill them like they killed my parents. I was lucky to survive but extremely unfortunate at the same time for the situation even occurring to me. Questions plagued my mind, questions about my situation and about my former situation. Why did the men in black attack us? Were we targeted? If so why? Why?

I snapped out of my thoughts as a woman in professional attire slowly walked up to me each step making a distinct tapping sound that made me grow anxious. She seemed to say something but I couldn't comprehend what she said the first time.

"Sorry what did you say again?" I asked with anxiety in my voice.

"I said you're in luck since you've been allowed access to your inheritance now" she replied back with a smooth voice and a pitying look on her face.

"What do I get?"

"You were meant to get the house and 55,000 pokedollars however you know what's happened to the house"

"Do I get any money from insurance or something for the house?"

"Unfortunately no, however you can sell off the land for at the very least 100,000 pokedollars. We already have a bidder" 100,000 pokedollars was barely even enough to travel around Kanto as a trainer. That's the result of having a society that valued travel over home a lot more.

"Umm," I thought through it and decided what to do with my new found money and land "Yes please and could all that money just be put in my account?"

"Of course!" She looked at me as if I was stupid for not expecting it to be put in my account, which to be fair is an appropriate reaction.

"Is it ok if I leave you to selling the land because I'd like to um travel a little."

"Sure and I'll be sure to let you know when the funds will transfer to your account," a look of thought washed over her face before she said "You want to compete in the league right?" This baffled me as to how transparent I was being.

"Um, yeah."

"Well good luck!" She said with a grin

* * *

Once I got out onto the street I walked with intent towards the pokemart. The sun was beating hot like it always is in Cinnabar. People were walking around the streets with Pokemon and I even spotted a trainer walking around with an Alakazam who seemed quite unusual as he talked to his Alakazam who's side of the conversation could not be heard.

I finally reached the pokemart. The building was two stories tall and had a colour scheme of blue and white with white making up most of the walls and blue for the roof. This was mostly done out of tradition and homage to the gas-stop-like pokemarts of Champion Red's time.

The interior of the place was massive. Sections were devoted to camping, hunting, food items and behind the counter was a cashier, a mr mime, medicine, TMs which were guarded by a burly looking machamp and pokeballs. I looked around and noticed Machokes stacking shelves and funnily enough one was trying to untie himself from one of the ropes in the camping section.

I briefly made eye-contact with a large tanned man who was not only as muscular as a machoke but was peppered with scars. He also had a Manectric closely following him who's muscles appeared stream lined with a deep scar running down its side that spoke of it's past endeavours. This man was a Pokemon trainer and most likely a six or seven-badge trainer since Cinnabar was home to the 7th gym. A sense of fear and respect overcame me and all of a sudden I was motivated all over again to become a trainer.

I hurriedly retrieved camping materials that included all the essentials like tents, sleeping bags, cooking and eating utensils and tupperware and a torch but I also got more expensive things like a league official pocket storage, which shrunk items for easy carry. It worked similar to a pokeball however unlike pokeballs it can be disabled by chips that emit electromagnetic waves. I moved on to the hunting section where I grabbed a tactical machete, an axe, pokebait, a good fishing rod and a tactical waist belt that I also bought pouches for. On my way to the counter I quickly grabbed enough food to last me two weeks.

I bought all the items I had picked out and a first aid kit, 5 potions, 5 pokeballs and 5 full heals. This dented my money a large amount equating to nearly 20,000 pokedollars in total. When I got outside I quickly hailed a taxi to take me to the slum district.

Once there I payed the driver, pulled my hood over and began to nervously navigate my way through the impoverish slums of Cinnabar. rattata scurried past me every few minutes and one had the guts to bite me to which I quickly stepped on and kicked away leaving it unconscious and at the mercy of the other rattata who were not gonna refuse a free meal even if it was one of their own relatives.

The slum district was a strange one. Buildings varied in design some looking temporary and made from scrap material while some were houses that you would expect to find in a suburban area. The houses all had one thing in common however; they each had a Pokémon guarding the house. Some were hordes of rattata and some houses had fighting type Pokémon like sawk and throh. One house in particular had a menacing infernape guarding the entrance.

Once I made it to the very outskirts of the district I took out my machete and looked back one last time at the slum district before entering the forest that lay ahead. I needed to find a strong Pokémon, a Pokémon that could evolve to lay waste on my opponents. Only pidgeys, rattatas and caterpies seemed to roam the path and before I knew it dusk was settling on the forest.

I quickly set up pokebait on the edge of a clearing while I hid in dense bushes waiting to ambush the pokémon that fell for the bait. A rattata came first but I did not want to eat it so I waited until three pidgeys ambushed the rattata with successive quick attacks and drove it away. I waited even longer until two of the pidgeys left when I decided it was my time to strike. My first slash had embedded the machete into the pidgey's wing and trapped it before I could go for the finishing kill the Pidgey dislodged the machete and tackled me knocking the wind from me. It tried to fly away but it flew too slowly with its damaged wing allowing me to punch it out of the air and stab it again finally killing it.

I decided to set up camp for the night right on the edge of the clearing where i had set up the pokebait earlier and I made a fire using a few sticks and the matches I bought. I set up a large metal pot and filled it with water from my drinking supply as I did not want to look for water at night. I let it heat up for a while until I decided it was the right temperature to pluck the Pidgey. I submerged it into the water and waited when I found that all the feathers had fallen off. I skewered it with a stick I had conveniently found next to my campsite and allowed it to cook on the skewer. This reminded me of the countless camps they had made us do while I lived in the orphanage and the countless times I camped with the Scotts. This brief memory brought a tear to my eye. Finally the Pidgey looked ok to eat so I bit on it and realised in terror how badly it tasted, I had easily overlooked it. I ended up downing the rest as I was still hungry much to my stomachs chagrin. Immediately after I blew out the fire and I went into my tent to go to sleep.

I woke up as the sun was rising and without hesitation I packed all my camping gear back into my Pocket Storage and I walked along the edge of the clearing rather than through it to avoid bringing attention to myself. When I got to the opposite end of the clearing I started walking towards the volcano on the Island. I came across a small muddy pond where I filtered water and renewed my water supply. There was also a Girafarig drinking at the pond so I slowly backed away and back towards the direction I was heading. The closer I got to the volcano the more fire, rock and ground type Pokémon I saw like numel, geodude and a quilava which I considered catching but determined it'd be too strong for me to fight and catch.

After an hour of circling the volcano I finally found something worth of note. I had found a nest with only one egg was resting on the nest. I quickly ran to the closest patch of forest which was 50 meters away and I successfully masked my scent and hid in a bush waiting for the mother to appear. I waited another few seconds when a 15ft tall garchomp landed from the sky. I quickly panicked due to a tree tilting behind me from the shockwave it had caused along the ground from its landing. How was I meant to steal an egg from a 15ft tall garchomp. Should I even steal the egg? Yeah, probably not. A sudden realisation came about me, I couldn't move from my spot until the garchomp left again to hunt or else my hiding spot would be found through its ability to sense seismic vibrations so I was stuck here anyway.

I analysed the situation more and the more I analysed it the more I got confused. garchomp were known to create burrows and lay their eggs there instead of laying them above ground where it was vulnerable to all the surface dwellers. Also how had this garchomp not been put down by the league yet when it could cause so much damage to the rest of Cinnabar?

It was the day after I was first trapped in a bush near the garchomp nest and I was still sitting in the same position I was the day before when a clan of machoke and machop came bursting through to the clearing. They were running from two pangoros. One being 7ft tall and the other was larger than it had any right to be. It was a 12ft tall behemoth. garchomp did not like the sudden intrusion and began dismantling the machokes with flurries of dragon claws and the occasional rock tomb while the pangoros did the same on the other side; It was a bloodbath. Eventually all the machoke were killed leaving only the machops and of course the garchomp and the two pangoros. From the corner of my eye I saw the machops being thrown around by a much smaller version of pangoro, a pancham.

Garchomp gave off a bestial roar to intimidate the pangoros into leaving only to be brutally swung at by the much smaller and obviously more aggressive pangoro. The garchomp recoiled back but quickly retaliated with a dragon claw sending the smaller pangoro backwards. The larger pangoro reacted violently to this and quickly swung his large fist down onto the garchomp sending her head down onto the ground. I took this chance to sprint towards the nest to grab the egg. I had hoped something like this would happen but I never expected it to. My heart beat was going at 100 miles per hour. I ran faster than I ever did before as I felt the adrenaline pumping through my veins.

I got to the nest when I saw the garchomp running towards me. I briefly panicked but to my relief the larger pangoro had grabbed the garchomp by the tail and tossed him towards the smaller pangoro who clotheslined him with a brutal swing. I ran back into the forest with the egg in hand and a new-found feeling of happiness and paranoia. Ironically, despite my paranoia I did not notice the small shadow stalking me.

I ran until I felt my legs nearly collapsed from under me, which was conveniently at the edge of a clearing that looked familiar. It was the same clearing I had camped out on at that first night I went on my search. I looked up at the sky with a content look and a sigh of relief while still clutching my egg tightly. A brief moment of fear overcame me as I a blue blur darted towards the sky. The garchomp flew up in the distance with the larger pangoro who she viciously threw to the ground. I heard a loud crash and a roar from the pangoro confirming it was still alive despite the fact it had been thrown from 50 meters in the air.

Before I could begin to set up my tent I was ambushed by a small figure. I felt myself being thrown a few meters landing with a thud on the grass. I looked back and realised it was the same 3ft tall pancham that had been throwing around the machops. It tried to look intimidating however it's large head and small body just made it look cute. I reluctantly brought out my machete as the pancham and I began circling each other. The pancham came sprinting forward into a jump aimed at my stomach to which I gracefully sidestepped and stuck my foot out to trip him. The pancham fell clumsily onto the ground where I stabbed at it with my machete and kicked it away. The pancham got up with a furious look and rushed me again this time I side stepped too late and he clipped my side but he had fallen face first again to which I curb stomped him and proceeded to unleash punches on him.

Before I knew it he turned around and threw me against a tree where I felt my back viciously collide with the tree resulting in my machete coming loose from my grip and was sent flying somewhere else. I bounced off the tree after a painful thud and I landed painfully on my buttocks. The Pancham ran towards me again to which I hurriedly took out my baseball bat from my Pocket Storage which was conveniently hung on my waist belt and I swung at him as he got close, a vicious crunch could be heard as my baseball bat hit him towards another tree leaving him unconscious.

I quickly retrieved my egg before I began to leave when a stroke of genius struck me - or was it common sense? I'm not sure but I didn't think I'd be regretting the decision anytime soon. I took out a pokeball and threw it at the prone pancham. It shook violently slowly calming to a still after which the pokeball flashed red three times. I walked over to the ball cautiously and picked it up looking at the panel of the pokeball I found that I had indeed caught it. It was male like I had guessed and it was only on 12% health; I had nearly beat it to death.

I began setting up camp again and as if on cue I finished setting up camp and a pidgey flew down in front of me allowing me to quickly whack it with the baseball bat I was still carrying around. My dream of becoming the Champion was beginning to take place.


End file.
